In a match that belonged to the raiders, the Bengal Warriors beat the Patna Pirates 60-42 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Tuesday in their Pro Kabaddi League tie.
The total of 102 points scored in the match was the fourth highest in PKL history, and was the Pirates’ first defeat of the season.
Maninder Singh’s 15 points, Nitin Kumar’s 14 and Shrikanth Jadhav’s 12 points extended the Warriors unbeaten run for the season, while Sachin Tanwar and Sudhakar M’s 14 points each for the Pirates went in vain.
A game between two unbeaten teams was always going to centre on who blinked first. As it was, it was the Bengal Warriors, whose talisman Singh was caught on his first raid of the evening. A tight Pirates defence ensured that they did not leak points while at the other end Tanwar kept picking up points sporadically to keep them up on the scorecards.
A super raid with five points (in a single raid) by Nitin Kumar changed the complexion of the game in the final ten minutes of the half, with the Warriors going from a three point deficit to leading by one. It sparked a three minute turnaround that saw the Warriors inflict the first all out of the evening, streaking into a 16-11 lead.
The Patna Pirates started the second half down by 11 points and despite a brief comeback, soon faced a second all out as the Warriors extended into a 34-22 lead. Singh and Jadhav completed their Super 10s with a quarter of the game yet to go, and the Pirates were staving off the inevitable.
The Warriors inflicted a third all out in the final minutes of the game before wrapping up the points and breaking the Pirates’ unbeaten run with a massive 18 points victory.